Talking in Circles » Blog Archive » Sicko

I'm gonna watch it tonight...

Awesome. Such a good movie. Tell us what you think.

I will... I may not be able to watch it till tomorrow... But I definitely intend to watch it this weekend...

Waiting four months for an MRI, sitting for seemingly interminable hours in emergency rooms and having cancer surgery considered “elective” are a few of the risks those countries with universal healthcare take. If America listens to Democrats and Michael Moore, waiting lists, under-funding and less medical options are the future of American healthcare. I watched “Sicko” on the internet, where a bootleg copy was posted before the film’s release.

Moore’s new film, released June 29, attacks the American healthcare system, trying to make a case that patients in communist Cuba get better care. The documentary targets viewer’s emotions with heart-wrenching stories of Americans without health insurance. The selective illustrations divide the film into chapters of misfortune -- ignoring details -- such as the higher taxes and doctor shortages that accompany the socialist model medicine Moore seems to love.

Moore -- as usual, the “star” of his own film -- visits Britain, Canada, France and Cuba -- to portray their “universal” systems as superior to ours. But how much better is care you have to wait for no matter how urgently you need it? In April 2007, Cato Institute Director of Health and Welfare Studies Michael Tanner wrote that Britain's Department of Health “reported in 2006 that at any given time, nearly 900,000 Britons are waiting for admission to National Health Service hospitals, and shortages force the cancellation of more than 50,000 operations each year.”

Moore portrays the American healthcare system as a bureaucratic machine designed to cheat citizens, glorify lobbyists and fatten the wallets of politicians who are accommodating to the industry.

“Giving people more power and control over their health care and health insurance creates new incentives for people to be more engaged in managing their health,” said Grace-Marie Turner, founder and President of the Galen Institute, a non¬profit research organization that advances ideas for market-based health reform at women’s luncheon in March.

“Sicko” harps on America’s 45 million citizens without health insurance, but withholds the fact that -- of the 45 million -- many are only temporarily uninsured. Stuart Browning speaks nationally on health care freedom and the myths of "single-payer" medicine, and recently produced a series of short films to counteract “Sicko.” His research found that 26 million uninsured make at least $50-75,000 a year.

Browning found that 18 million of the uninsured are young adults who spend income on entertainment and alcohol instead of managing their health. Moore (good socialist that he is) wants to compensate for those who are careless about their own health -- not just the unlucky minority.

As the camera scours hospital waiting rooms in Canada and healthcare facilities in Britain, we hear the word “free” over and over again. But universal healthcare is far from free. Those are tax dollars working on overload -- to pay not only for the people with serious, costly illness but also those with preventative sickness, like things brought on by obesity, smoking, and other irresponsible choices. In the free market, is that we have choices. Healthcare costs necessarily rise under the quasi-welfare system because people won’t have to care about finding the most cost effective treatment.

These realities Moore ignores. Another is the fact that just because someone in America lacks health insurance doesn’t mean that they can’t or don’t get health care.

As physician and Manhattan Institute scholar David Gratzer put it, “let's not confuse a lack of health insurance with a lack of health care.” There are many free health clinics available for anyone -- including 12 million non-taxpaying illegal immigrants -- nationwide.

Moore asserts that Americans without insurance are essentially abandoned, which anyone who can read a newspaper knows is a simply untrue. The federal government mandates that emergency rooms treat all who seek medical attention regardless of payment ability. One emergency room nurse told me that, although patients are asked for identification and social security numbers in the emergency room, they aren’t required for treatment.

“The ER is always busy -- busy with lots of patients that shouldn't be there… the people abusing Medicaid -- with minor problems and taking away from those with real needs,” my sister, a licensed E.M.T. and nurse tech told me. The problems of today’s emergency waiting rooms are small peanuts compared to what we would face with nationalized healthcare.

Browning profiles one Canadian who hired a private medical broker to get him quick attention for what turned out to be a brain tumor. The status quo in Canada could have taken up to 8 months for a surgery he received almost instantly in America.

When Moore glorifies Cuba as a healthcare haven, he misrepresents that those without money or elite status in Cuba are given adequate healthcare. In truth, the general population suffers. According to the web site, therealcuba.com, “Foreigners who visit Cuba…are fed the official line from Castro's propaganda machine: ‘All Cubans are now able to receive excellent healthcare’…[but] Cubans who require medical attention must go to other hospitals, that lack the most minimum requirements…” (The site features gruesome photos of the inhumane conditions in many Cuban hospitals and citizen testimony’s of their outrageous experiences.)

In Canada, it’s not so brutal but it isn’t good. In 2005, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled in Chaoulli v. Quebec that the ban on private health insurance the unreasonable delays for medical care infringed on basic human rights to life, liberty and personal security. What a great model for America to adopt. If the Michael Moore Democrats have their way, you too may someday have to wait for urgent medical care.

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Comment Socialized Medicine is Sickoby Stuart Browning





I'm an independent filmmaker with no ties to the health insurance or healthcare industry -- only a personal concern about American liberty and medical freedom. I've made a number of short films about health care policy -- specifically for the internet -- and featured on a new website: Free Market Cure.

Michael Moore's new movie, "Sicko", is set to inject a large dose of misinformation and propaganda into our national dialog about health care policy. According to one observer, Michael Moore has created a love letter to the Canadian system. However, Americans should know that Canada rations health care and that many Canadians wait inordinately long periods of time for urgent medical treatment. The Fraser Institute's annual report "Waiting Your Turn" estimates that Canadians are waiting for nearly 800,000 medical procedures. If the Canadian system was adopted in the U.S. -- and you assume one person per treatment - that would translate to nearly 7.3 million Americans. Not 7.3 million Americans theoretically without health care due to a lack of insurance -- but 7.3 million Americans who need medical treatment but cannot get it without being on long waiting lists.

How long? In Canada, it depends on the province and the type of treatment. The median wait time for medical treatment in Canada in 2006 was 17.8 weeks. However, this doesn't tell the whole story. It's not hard to find Canadians who have waited months to get an MRI, and years for some types of treatments. There are multiple kinds of waits in the Canadian system: the wait to see a specialist, the wait to get a diagnostic test, the wait to get surgery -- and then the wait for rescheduled surgery after one's initial surgical appointment has been cancelled -- sometimes multiple times -- a routine phenomenon. Waits for orthopedic surgery can be multiple years - and in the case of some elderly Canadians - forever. Waits for things like gastric bypass and sleep apnea treatment are routinely 4-5 years.

My short movie, "A Short Course in Brain Surgery," highlights the plight of Lindsay McCreith, a Canadian with a suspected brain tumor who had to wait four months for an MRI. Instead, he crossed the border to the U.S and got it in two days. He then faced another four month wait just to see a specialist in order to schedule surgery which would represent yet another wait. Instead, he had the tumor removed in the U.S. -- immediately. It turned out to be early stage brain cancer.

Another short, "Two Women," chronicles the sad story of Janice Fraser who, unable to urinate, needed to have a pacemaker-type device implanted to control her bladder. Unfortunately, the hospital arbitrarily rationed the operation by doing only one per month. Janice was number 32 on the list -- nearly a three year wait. She ended up waiting so long that she developed life-threatening infections, had to have her bladder removed in an emergency procedure, and will now wear a urine bag for the rest of her life.

"The Lemon" tells the story of Shirley Healey who was suffering from a near total blockage of her mesoenteric artery, which feeds blood to the bowels. She was slowly starving and risked death by waiting in Canada. She came to Bellingham, Washington where she got her life-saving operation immediately. The American surgeon who operated said that the Canadian patients are the worst, most dangerous cases he sees -- due to the long waits.

Consider this: across Canada, thousands of baby boomers and the elderly often wait years for knee and hip replacements; often in great pain while taking powerful narcotics. However, a dog in Canada can get a joint replacement operation at a veterinary hospital done in a matter of weeks.

The real danger of adopting a system like the one in Canada is not just long waits for medical treatment. Americans would pay much higher taxes and lose important liberties while turning over personal life-and-death decisions to government bureaucrats.



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Playfullheart, you do realize that even if healthcare is socialized, it will most likely be basic care and anybody with previous healthcare plans would be able to keep them right? Thus, bureacracy will be kept under a tight limit, and reliance on socialized healthcare will only be on the lower class. I'd imagine abuses by HMOs would also be taken care of in the private sector. That's pretty much the reason why people have lost faith in privatized care.

I'd imagine, in the interest of fairness, private coverage would be tax deductible too.

I don't understand why healthcare should be linked to employment... I mean really... Health insurance is destroying the American auto industry... Why shouldn't it be more like Car insurance? Everyone buys their own, and you can buy a level of coverage to meet your needs... So if you are young and reasonable, you can get a policy that only covers emergency care, and that is relatively cheap, but if you are an insane middle aged white woman who needs to have her nose and tits worked on ever few months, you have to buy a premium policy that costs a fabulous fortune...

That seems to make much more sense to me...

I don't understand what you mean. The point of being "insured" is that you don't essentially know what's going to happen. If you're young and you have the crappy Emergency care that doesn't pay for big surguries, then you're boned when you get diagnosed with a serious illness or injury. And believe me, barely anyone would be able to afford the 'premium policy'. Did you even watch the film?

I think it's a basic concept: I mean, you wouldn't want firemen to be making a cost-benifit analysis before they decide to go put a fire out. What are they going to say? "Oh, no, sorry, your plan only covers car fires"? "Oh, sorry, you're too far away from the fire station"? The whole scare-mongering around the government and "evil socialism" is really tired bullshit and is getting annoying, and it's hurting people.

I mean, the American health system is so backwards. It's based entirely on the bottom line and not for actually helping people. In other words, doctors and insurance companies are rewarded by the least amount of care they give...in other words, doctors or insurers that cost the company less money will be given a fat pay check. It's completely backwards. While other countries in the world have it reversed: doctors and hospitals are rewarded by the amount of care they give, and the amount of people who are healed.